I Love Autumn!

I thought I would give a big shout of thanks to my friend Autumn who came up yesterday away from her lovely family to give Archie and I a day to be together while she watched our little Gabe! She's the best and am so grateful for loving family and friends who are helping us get through this huge change in our lives!! We love you!!! And thanks to Autumn's family for letting her come up to help!

We were able to see a movie "State of Play." It was very intense! We also hit Winger's for some yummy wings and salads. The popcorn maker was out of order so no popcorn for the appetizer, but less calories to be swallowed...he he. We even had time to get our grocery shopping in as well! And our final stop was Emmett's and Ethel's for some awesome shakes! So thank you again, Autumn, we had a wonderful day!

My Growing Boy!

I just wanted to share some extra pics of little Gabriel! He's growing so fast! We have all been sick this last week, but are slowly getting better, first Archie, then me, and finally fell to Gabe. He had a rough couple of days, but he was sawing logs all night and only got up once! So he's been feeling a lot better today. He had the biggest smiles for me today! I feel that his first laugh is coming soon...

It's amazing how much life has changed since little Gabe came into my life! It's been a rough road so far, but I feel that we're finally getting on the right track. It's starting to sink in that Gabe is mine and that I will always be the one he needs to take care of him and comfort him. It's life-altering and I'm scared, but excited to be a mom to my sweet little boy. We have so much to learn from each other! And I thank my Heavenly Father for my little boy!

Gabe on Formula

Well, I officially weaned off the pump earlier this week. It's been a little emotional, but I'm doing better now. Gabe's pediatrician gave us some free samples of some colic formula to try and see how he does with it. It was a bit crazy at first since he's been so used to my breast milk, but now he's gulping it down just like he was with my milk! Not any spit up issues either, so he's definitely doing really well on this hypoallergenic formula. The doctor said to come by his office whenever we run low since he has so many samples and this type of formula is expensive! So free formula for a few months til his colic lets up and then hopefully he'll take to the Costco brand or Walmart brand! And it's been almost a whole week since a major all day crying episode so we're hoping he'll be out of this colic phase by four months!! Just in time for my birthday!

Two Month Check-up

My big boy Gabriel just had his two month check-up yesterday. I can't believe he's only two months old. It feels like it's been a lot longer than that! But he is starting to even out in the percentages. His head was in the fifty percentile, height sixty percent, and his weight seventy five percent! My poor baby had to get his immunizations as well. He got two shots and one oral vaccination. We also have to give him some physical therapy since he favors his head towards the right side. Twice a day we have to hold his head over to the left at five seconds in a set of ten! He hates it! It's so sad, but such is life. The pediatrician gave us some hope that he should be over his colicky phase by June so hopefully only two more months. Due to the immunizations he's feeling a bit sick so we're pumping him up with infant Tylenol! He slept great last night, and I'm hoping the trend continues.

Another emotional thing for me is I have decided to wean of breast milk. He never took to the breast even after visiting a lactation specialist so I have been pumping the last two months to give him my milk. But physically it's been too hard to keep up since I've been pumping 6-8 times a day, including at night. So even my lactation nurse told me if he didn't end up breast feeding that it would be crazy to continue to pump for months on end to give him my milk. So logically and physically I understand why I need to do this, but emotionally it has been pretty hard. So wish us luck on the formula! The pediatrician told us to try some formula that helps with colic and to use it til he's over his colicky phase and then he should be able to go to regular, cheaper formula. But he said he has a ton of samples so when we run out to come get some more from him! So I'm hoping we won't need it longer than June!

And since he's been so colicky we avoid most public outings, but tomorrow his cousin is getting baptized and there will be a family get together, so wish us luck that he'll feel OK and have a good time!!!

A Fun Weekend

Last weekend was so wonderful. My mother-in-law came down to meet her new grandson! She has seven of her own children so she's quite comfortable in childcare, which was a great help to Archie and I. She did night duty two nights in a row and on Saturday we were able to go out and eat and see a movie, even! It was wonderful to get out and feel human again! I'm so grateful Dianne was able to come up and help.

And the weekend before that my really awesome friend Catie from Oregon came down for the weekend to meet Gabe and to hang with us cool peeps!


This weekend Archie decided to take Friday off so here we are for a fun three-day weekend! Oh, the excitement never changes around here. So for our first night of the weekend Gabe decides to stay up til 1 in the morning! He's so thoughtful! hee hee! They say the colic should end by three to four months! So only one or two more to go (hopefully)!

Here are some more pics of precious Gabe!